A move to delay bringing schedules of the airport development agreement before the Public Accounts Committee has been turned down by David Burt, the chairman of the committee.

At an often heated meeting of its Bermuda Government and Opposition MPs, Mr Burt said he regretted that the PAC’s investigation had descended into politics.

Cole Simons of the One Bermuda Alliance proposed a motion that “we not pursue this matter until the final schedules are prepared and presented to us”. He added: “At this point, as far as public interests are concerned, it makes no sense to continue down this road because it’s still a moving target.”

He asked for the withdrawal of a summons issued by Mr Burt, compelling financial secretary Anthony Manders to bring the schedules to the PAC’s next meeting on May 5.

Bob Richards, the Minister of Finance, has said the schedules contained commercially sensitive information that the Government had agreed not to disclose at this juncture.

Mr Burt told the PAC that the motion from Mr Simons was out of order and turned it down, pointing to the committee’s unanimous agreement in November to secure a copy of the agreement.

The Acting Opposition Leader added that as chairman, he had been legally within his right to issue a fresh summons after the April 14 meeting failed to go ahead.

However, in response to objections from OBA MP Susan Jackson that she felt “blindsided” by Mr Burt’s actions, he agreed to keep PAC members informed via e-mail of such actions in the future.

Nonetheless, Mr Burt said: “I refuse to accept that every single thing inside those schedules can’t be shared with the one committee that has oversight.”

Mr Simons denied that he had been asked by Mr Richards to bring his motion before the PAC, when asked by Progressive Labour Party MP Wayne Furbert.

Mr Burt told The Royal Gazette that if the minister could adequately demonstrate the sensitivity of a piece of information, he would be receptive to having it not aired in the public domain — but he would not accept them being redacted wholesale.

“We can also resolve to hear matters in a private session,” he added.

The committee heard that Mr Manders will be obliged to produce the schedules for the agreement at the next session, as well as detailing instances where financial instructions were not followed.